Chapter 238: New East Mist
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
The current Eastern Mist Communal Country was no longer that former weak and poor small northern country. With new residents, new armies, a new religion, and so many changes, this country had essentially changed at its foundation.
Its citizens mostly consisted of humans and gray elves. There was no census to count the population ratio, but no matter what the ratio was, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference between their overall general power ranks. After all, the former Tassel Kingdom was still the strongest of the four northern elven kingdoms, far stronger than the weakest northern country of East Mist. Not to mention that the elves’ individual power ranks were far above that of humans, and there was no comparing their high-ranked combat strength and potential, either.
In order to avoid conflicts from accumulating over time from both species’ long-term interaction, I refused to do anything typical according to common sense. Instead, I forcefully pushed through a mixed-living arrangement policy for humans and elves to live together in the same areas.
Perhaps, at the beginning, this would cause conflicts and trouble, but over the long term, this would definitely be far better than misunderstandings and differences creating larger and larger conflicts over time and ending in explosive conflict under the influence of those intentionally sowing discord or those with ambition.
The People of the Mist was a tribe of many different ethnicities to begin with. It was a cultural product of the citizens coming together. Perhaps, as long as I did a good job in dealing with this, I could get this to become completely culturally accepted and become a future leading voice.
In the north, the Eastern Mist Communal Country was probably the only country with more than one species making up its core. But what was more unique about it was the absolutely special makeup of the country’s upper-level leaders.
The original Eastern Mist Communal Country was established as a communal country and not a kingdom, because when it was established, it indeed borrowed some mega-level empires’ strength. The founding king Charles was even the archduke of the strong country Yintanlo, and even made a promise to appear as Yintanlo’s dependant state, at least on the surface.
Charles had the status of a knight that developed a new land for some major country. The fact that he received material resources and power to back him up, and then became a lord in his own right and swore fealty to the original country were all a normal course of events for any newly-born country.
However, it wasn’t long before East Mist truly became a country of its own. Charles tore apart the more than ten dependent state agreements that he had signed. Yep, that guy was fooling everyone from start to finish; he had actually requested and received assistance from more than ten countries, as well as swore fealty to them.
Of course, all of those major countries were in no way happy to discover that they had been fooled. However, the result of Charles playing around with so many countries at once was that all of these countries checked and balanced themselves. None of them gained any benefits in the end, causing the Eastern Mist Communal Country to become truly independent. Actually, this was a difficult and complex process. The geographical advantage (being in a distant location, and so poor that there were few financial benefits to be gained here) also helped tremendously.
However, the consequences were likely that Charles’s personal reputation was in the pits, and this affected East Mist’s reputation right from the very start of its creation. All the human countries in the middle plains viewed East Mist as nothing more than barbarians, not to mention its trustworthiness was at rock bottom.
This was also the historical reason of why all the rulers of East Mist were kings and not archdukes. In fact, even though there were still two archdukes within the Eastern Mist Communal Country, East Mist’s nobility system basically had no more connection with the nobility system in the plains. It was common that East Mist was treated by the other countries as “barbarians playing house games.”
In this feudal age of knights, the noble domain lords all had significant private armies and were in charge of protecting their own citizens and domains. They were indeed the backbone of this country. But now, from my standpoint, they now posed an obstacle.
At the very least, they had gotten in the way of my policies multiple times already. I knew that they were difficult to deal with, with bucketloads of reasons and excuses against me, and they forever stood against centralization. Especially after I intentionally began to centralize policy and political power; I became their group target, and every month Reyne would receive several local domain lords’ letters reporting that a dishonest official (me) was fooling her, causing plenty of gossip.
And this time, I put the elves into the new city areas under construction and the royal demesnes, as well as into territories of nobles who were friendlier with the royalty. This caused many complaints from various major nobles, since everyone knew that apart from the elves’ artwork and magic, the elves themselves were a great resource.
This was also why I didn’t dare to completely disperse the elves. The lands were vast and the ruler was distant, so the domain lords were the biggest authorities in their own lands. I couldn’t count on all the domain lords being of good moral character. These gray elves were already afraid after having so many incidents happen to them, so I couldn’t possibly allow anything bad to befall them yet again. That would cause all my long-term goals to go up in smoke.
But this situation, where the domain lords acted like local kings, couldn’t be allowed to continue. Perhaps it was because of my experiences as Yongye and in the Underground that I had gotten used to centralized authority gathered in one place, but I was dissatisfied with this feudal system from the very start.
When I merely wanted to open up free movement within the Mist Alliance for all its citizens, it caused a huge amount of obstacles and backlash against me, which made me all the more determined to utterly overhaul this system.
But, I also knew that forcefully changing the political system would affect all these nobles’ personal benefits, which would be no different from starting an internal civil war. That was why I could only take the slow method, sharpening my sword and killing one at a time, step by step.
The newly-born Eastern Mist Communal Country was a country that was unified with its church; it worshipped the Law God Wumianzhe as its national church. There were two highest-ranked leaders in name—Her Highness Reyne, who had civil authority, while the other one was the highest-ranked priest Xueti, who of course had religious authority… just thinking about how this country’s highest-ranked leaders were actually a naughty child and a bastard that was often surrounded and beaten up by Town Security made me feel an oncoming a heart attack.
Yep, after saying all this, perhaps some of you would have guessed how it was that I intended to decrease the local domain lords’ authority. The battle between civil and religious authority was an endless one in any country, and the unstoppable force of divine might would make any domain lord have difficulty countering it.
Since the Church of Law was the national church, it wouldn’t be too much to ask for a large temple and local church branches to be constructed in each domain now, would it?
Since the Church of Law has been recognized by the citizens, then having Judgementors and Knights of Justice patrol around the entirety of East Mist and spreading the church’s teachings wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?
Since the divine job class members of the Church of Law are humble yet skilled in battle, and were excellently viewed by all sections of society and welcomed everywhere, then taking the long term into consideration, it was only natural to expand their forces, and recruiting people from your domain wasn’t too much to ask for, was it?
Since…
Under that series of “sinces,” when the Church of Law continuously expanded in each local domain, there could only be one result.
“Since the Law God’s teachings stipulate that everyone should be equal under the law, since you committed serious crimes just because you were a noble, then it wouldn’t be too much to ask for to cut off your head, now, would it!?”
By that time, since I was the one who truly controlled the religious authority, I would naturally be able to decrease the domain lords’ civil authority and complete my goal of centralizing power.
In my plan, if the Mist Alliance could be compared to a tremendous giant, then the Eastern Mist Communal Country would definitely be both the giant’s critical spot, its heart, as well as its fist, as it was the first country that recognized the Law God as its national church. As the main headquarters of the Church of Law, every step the East Mist took would surely be imitated by other places, and it definitely had to become the perfect model that I had in my mind.
“Along with new development in technology, floating airships for citizens’ use and transportation technology for traveling between cities will become a reality sooner or later. After transportation becomes more convenient, moving military forces will become more convenient as well, which will cause the domain lords’ duty to protect their own citizens to lose meaning. The system of each domain being like its own small kingdom will naturally become meaningless.”
Of course, it was still a long way until that could be realized, but wasn’t it nice to have some expectations?
What I had to do was simply plant my seeds, and patiently wait for the day of harvest.
“Yep, it’s definitely not because I want to slack off or anything like that.”
But, from a certain standpoint, my status was quite awkward.
In name, I was an ancestor of East Mist. In that case, my status should be above the current ruler’s. Of course, this didn’t include actual authority, since in history, all those emperor’s grandfathers and so on stopped involving themselves in political affairs. Any that were technically retired and still wanted to get majorly involved meant that the country would soon be involved in civil war.
That was why, in terms of civil authority, my status was incredibly awkward. In a way, any that swore loyalty to me were technically betraying the current ruler’s authority, but luckily, Reyne placed total trust in me and even gave me the identity of “Teacher to the Queen,” giving me support in all areas so I wouldn’t be too awkward in the royal palace.
But this still had its own problems. Human hearts would change. Even if Reyne maintained her trust in me, the people below her would have their own thoughts and consider their own personal benefits, not to mention that Reyne would one day get married and have her own children. [System: You’re really getting ahead of yourself here] She would retire one day as well. Considering the unknown attitude that future rulers may have towards me, I figured that I should make my own considerations as early as possible.
At the very least, I had no intentions of interfering with any internal affairs of the royal palace, and made my attitude quite clear as well.
As for religious authority, my status was similarly awkward as well.
I had the identity of being Wumianzhe’s God Envoy, which basically meant that I was the representation of Wumianzhe’s will. But I didn’t return to the Divine Kingdom afterwards; instead, I always stayed in the mortal plane. In a way, this caused an overlap with Xueti’s job of being the highest-ranked authority of the Church of Law. He was supposed to be the leader of the Church and the representative of the True God in this plane, but I was also the representative of Wumianzhe’s will, so if there were two representatives… fine, why was it that I was always in such awkward situations?
But since Xueti was someone who I brought up to his current rank, and all the higher-ups of the current Church of Law belonged to my faction, at least, for the time being, there wouldn’t be any problems. As for any changes to the higher-ups of the Law of Church… due to Wumianzhe’s connection with me, there would be even less problems.
From the very start, Wumianzhe was the core of my plan. How could I possibly allow any problems to affect him?
As for military authority, my status was the most awkward of all.
With countless new military squads being created, the original system of royal knights plus town defense squads was obviously no longer suitable. East Mist created a new military headquarters that organized military affairs for the entire country.
Yep, the entire country, including all the domain lords…
I couldn’t use any plots that would definitely start an internal war, so in the current military setup, my status was incredibly awkward.
In this era, there was no such thing as a separation between the civil and military. The highest-ranked leader of a country’s military would forever be the royalty. Reyne was the queen, and the military was an organization that served her. As the person who was in name the highest-ranked member of the military, I was also the representative of royal authority.
Alright, I also knew that representative this, representative that was all quite bothersome. But, the people in this generation really cared about such formalities. If one forcibly tried going against the sensibilities and unwritten laws of nobility in this era, then that person would have no actual authority. Without actual authority, the people under them would pull all sorts of tricks to resist carrying out your orders, which would result in nothing ever getting accomplished.
“That’s why I hate these wooden blockheads from a primitive age. How bothersome.”
Cough, I should get back to the main topic.
The military situation was the same as the political one, with Reyne being the person controlling the military in name. But since the newly-created military squadrons were all under the command of my knights and I was her representative, all the generals followed my orders and the military was basically in my hands.
This was obviously not normal at all, but the most abnormal part was that everyone felt that this was natural.
The final conclusion was that although my status was quite awkward, in a way, I was East Mist’s true number one. This made things similar to Sulfur Mountain City back in the day, with Adam and Little Red not doing anything at all, and Margaret too busy with all the daily political tasks, so the true one to run everything turned out to be me, a prisoner.
But this type of system obviously wasn’t what I wanted. I had many things to do as well, and would often be going to other places in the future, so it would be quite common that I wouldn’t be here for long periods of time. It would be quite bothersome in the future if they got into the habit of always relying on me.
That was why I needed to make myself disappear on purpose, in order to cultivate their own senses of responsibility and proactiveness. They should be able to do everything without me.
“After saying all this, isn’t it all just to find an excuse to slack off? Since you know that you’ll probably be really busy in the future, can’t you just show off how hard-working you can be for once? Your office is already filled to the brim with paperwork, and even your living room and kitchen are stuffed with paperwork as well. Where is your so-called sense of responsibility and proactiveness?”
Since my magical pet was connected to my soul with a contract, even if I escaped, I would have to take this silly cat with me, which was probably the source of my displeasure.
Cough, don’t listen to Harloys speak nonsense; I’m definitely not saying all this just to slack off, I—I—I just wanted to improve my subordinates’ abilities, so that they could quickly grow and become independent!
“Improve your subordinates’ abilities in playing hide and seek?”
“You still haven’t found His Highness Roland yet?”
“Town Security just reported that they discovered him, but he’s slipped away again. Damn it, where is His Highness hiding?”
Another team of knights passed in front of me. Hmph! Actually using royal knights to perform a personal task such as finding someone, this was an abuse of royal authority. How unseemly. I absolutely needed to give them a lecture when I return.
“You actually don’t feel any shame in lecturing others? Just obediently stay in your office and think of how much money it would save in administrative costs!”
“Silly cat, shut up! Otherwise, I’m going to make all your meals into dog biscuits.”
“…Do you believe then that I’m going to find a chance to transform into your appearance and shout loudly ‘I am Roland,’ while dancing a square dance and sing ‘Little Apple?’ That’s an ancient classic.”
Imagining that frightening scene, I instantly shivered.
“I surrender! Please don’t!”
Considering how Harloys’ shamelessness wasn’t in any way less than mine, competing with each other in how lacking in limits we could be would only result in defeat for both of us. I instantly submitted.
“Hmph! That’s more like it. Oh right, I heard that there’s a merchant group from some Allis Kingdom in the city’s southern market that sells rather famous pickled cabbage candy; how about trying them out? Also, there’s an Axilo performing troupe’s musical showing at three p.m., and their ace singer and main dancers are all elves.”
Alright, her intentions were obvious now. Wasn’t this basically just outright extortion…?
“Let’s go, we’ll get tickets immediately!”
No matter where I was slacking off—whoops—I mean, taking a vacation, it would still be a vacation. Since it was all the same, I might as well just go along with Harloys.